Ten Ten Ten

(If you aren’t singing this to the tune of the William Tell Overture then you probably aren’t old enough to remember the Lone Ranger and the joke will be lost on you…)

TBH enjoying the autumn colour and sunshine.

The second of our Thirlmere weekend days began with a climb through a plantation with enough space and beech trees between the conifers to still be pleasant. The path followed Dobgill, where – at the bottom of a waterfall – floating beech leaves provided a spot of colour reminiscent of some of Andy Goldsworthy’s art.

We soon reached the source of Dobgill at Harrop Tarn…

Harrop Tarn with Tarn Crag behind.

Fly agaric.

Once above the woodland the Birkett obsessive in the party (our own correspondent) persuaded most of the others to make a major detour to tick off Brown Rigg.

The consensus of opinion seemed to be that Brown Rigg was an excellent view point and worth the effort.

Climbing Bea Tarn Fell.

Summit of Blea Tarn Fell.

On Blea Tarn Fell we rejoined the small break away group who were not so enamoured with Birkett bagging. An extended lunch, snooze, sunbathe stop ensued.

There was much debate as to whether my (well Birkett’s) proposed route via Standing Crag and Coldbarrow Fell was ‘elegant’ but after much vacillating we all ended up on Standing Crag.

Blea Tarn

On Standing Crag.

We lost a couple of the party here as they decided to head down for the long drive back to the 1950’s (otherwise known as Berwick-on-Tweed).

As the day drew on the haze was beginning to clear a little and Low Shoulder on Coldbarrow Fell proved to be an excellent viewpoint from which to enjoy the increasing clarity – another Birkett well worth a detour.

Watendlath and Skiddaw from Low Shoulder.

High Shoulder was the only disappointing Birkett of the day – a rather insignificant little knoll. Ullscarf followed, the highest point of the day and although the top is vast and featureless, being very central in the Lakes, Ullscarf does have great views.

Ullscarf summit.

Helm Crag and Loughrigg.

The top which Birkett calls Wythburn Fell looks to be a rather arbitrary choice on the map – one knoll amongst many, but on the ground it made perfect sense – a shapely little top with a great view.

The usual suspects on Wythburn Fell.

When we arrived back at the cars , MM – who was carrying some form of GPS – told me that of 7 hours on the route (Birkett suggests 4 hours) we had spent 3 hours and 26 minutes walking and 3 hours and 29 minutes sitting around. It has been noted before that when I walk with this particular group of old friends we tend do do as much sitting as walking, but it’s nice to have some empirical evidence of our collective slothfulness.

[…] Blea Tarn Hill – somewhere I might never have visited without Birkett’s list to encourage me. Not a lot of effort being expended here, but we actually managed to claim a fair number of summits that day. […]